Whale Watching Report

Captain Carl steered us into a double hitter today! Not only did we see J-pod but we also found three minke whales. Our first whale sighting was a minke whale just off Salmon Bank. We watched him for about ten minutes, but soon departed because we could see J-pod in the distance. The first group of orcas we watched was J16, Slick, J26, Mike, J33, Keet, J36 Alki, and J42, Echo. Polaris, J28, and Tahlequah, J35 were also with them. This group was moving at a steady pace close together. Next we moved ahead to visit another group. This group was getting active as we saw a few breaches and they appeared to be chasing salmon because of all their changes in direction. We saw Blackberry, J27, Spieden, J8, Riptide, J30, Samish, J14, and her new calf. Carl turned off the engines and the orcas circled the boat. Samish brought the new calf over and they swam right under our boat giving everybody a thrill!! As we were watching the orcas we also saw two minke whales swimming nearby. Some other great sightings for today included a huge pod of harbor porpoises, and twenty five brown pelicans both in Rosario Strait. We also found a bald eagle, harbor seals, California sea lions, pigeon guillemots, pelagic cormorants, rhinoceros auklets, and a common loon. The weather was sunny and beautiful to put the final touches on an awesome day. Naturalist Bart Rulon